Trump Sets Two GOP Low Water Marks in 2016 Election
Despite beating expectations and winning the presidency, Election Day brought Trump a few unwanted records in the history books
Due in large part to winning the expectations game, the 2016 election cycle was considered a big success for the Republican Party, despite losing seats in both legislative chambers as well as the national popular vote in the presidential race.
But even as Democrats fell well short of the mark across many key battleground states – and continued the party’s historic tumble in a handful of others – Donald Trump did turn in a few historically poor performances along the way.
In Vermont, Trump won just 30.27 percent of the vote – the lowest support ever recorded by a Republican presidential candidate in the Green Mountain State since its first presidential nominee 41 cycles ago in 1856.
Prior to Trump, the previous worst showing by a Republican nominee was John McCain’s 30.45 percent in 2008 against Barack Obama.
Now a liberal stronghold (with 5.8 percent of voters writing-in favorite son Bernie Sanders for president in November), Vermont holds the all-time presidential winning streak by either party with 27 consecutive GOP victories from 1856 through 1960.
While Trump narrowly broke McCain’s record in Vermont, he set a new mark even more convincingly in the District of Columbia.
The New York businessman received only 4.09 percent of the vote – the worst showing ever for a Republican in the Democratic-dominated District across the 14 election cycles since its first presidential vote in 1964.
Trump broke the party’s previous record low of 6.63 percent also set by McCain in 2008.
Republicans have never won even a quarter of the vote in D.C., peaking at 21.6 percent in 1972 during Richard Nixon’s landslide victory.
The 2016 cycle also gave Trump the distinction of suffering the worst home state loss of any victorious presidential candidate in U.S. history.
Trump lost New York by 22.5 points to Hillary Clinton (one of her three ‘home states’ along with Illinois and Arkansas).
Only two other winning presidential nominees lost their home state: Democrat James Polk was defeated in Tennessee by Whig Henry Clay by 0.1 point in 1844 and Democratic President Woodrow Wilson lost New Jersey to Republican Charles Hughes by 11.7 points in 1916.
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1. “Shrillery” also maintains a home in the Georgetown section of DC; hence, the “Potomac” Washington (the one not identified with Starbucks, Microsoft, et. al.) too ought to be considered her “home”.
2. The saying (axiom? aphorism?) “your hometown is your toughest critic” has NEVER rung more spot-on than this past cycle, with both “Her” and “Drumpf” getting shellacked/thumped in the respective “homes” of each (AR, where she initially attained her political prominence; NY, which contains both his birthplace and the home of the national tabloid media, from which he ascended). “LOW water marks” indeed!!